Calm your mind and allow me to take you on a mental vacation with me. We are traveling to a small tropical island in the French Polynesia. Our items are all packed up for the next two weeks, in preparation for our relaxing getaway. The plane awaits our company at the airport. We are now on the plane, soaring 35 000 feet in the sky, above the clouds where we are as close to the sun as most of us will ever get. The flight goes so smoothly that we are able to rest, occasionally peering out the small window at the huge world. We have now landed in paradise, and the resort staff kindly welcome us as guests with fresh pressed local mango pineapple juice. When we look to the east, we see a very distant image of the coast in California, and to the west is australia. We are right in the middle of two populations carrying out their everyday routines of early morning work and school yet we are enjoying a break from reality. This is our home for the next two weeks, with no worries or responsibilities. It is time that we focus on ourselves. Whether the destination is near or far, by car or by plane, vacations are a great method to escape and relax the mind. Reality, although very important to understand, is difficult to manage every day, of every month, of every year. We often get carried away and forget how important it is to be mindful not only of others, but especially ourselves. We can choose to travel with friends if that is when we are most content and ourselves. We can travel by ourselves and do a mental reset if that is what you are in need of. I personally have found that without being able to travel due to restrictions, that I feel less relaxed and that I could use a four month long vacation at this point in time if only it were possible. Covid has had the effect that every day is a repetition of the last. In fact you are not alone if you have these thoughts, forty-six of the fifty people I surveyed about this question had said they agreed with that statement and I also do. Of course we can’t have any major excursions during the pandemic, but in case you are holding on to the hope of being able to get away for a vacation soon here are some things to help prepare:
Although traveling isn’t the solution to all of your problems, it still feels amazing to treat yourself with a break from reality and to sit back and enjoy the little things. At times we are so caught up in our worries we forget just how big the world is, and the opportunity that lies out there for grabs. Take a mental vacation.
Jenna J
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In our life, we will be setting goals for ourselves to become a better person. Well however not all these goals we set for ourselves will be accomplished. But is there a way or ways to increase the possibility of accomplishing most of our goals? First, we need to start with setting a goal that motivates you. which means setting goals that you are actually interested in. If the outcome is not that important for you, or if you think it worth too much to accomplish it, then there is a great chance of you giving up working towards after a few weeks or even after a few days. Therefore “Motivation” is the first key step to achieving goals. Then, after you have set a goal that motivates you, you’ll have to consider if the goal you have set is SMART. When I say SMART I’m not saying you have to be super intelligent it means Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. Specific, “Your goal must be clear and well defined”. When you have a goal that is clear and well defined you will have a specific destination and direction so you can reach it smoothly. If not, you might feel lost or don't know what to while you’re approaching your goals. Measurable, make your goal measurable means give it a time period so there is something to measure and compare if you have improved. For example, “I want to increase my Math mark by 10% in the next 3 month” instead of “I want to improve my Math”. Attainable, When you’re setting a goal make sure your goal it's possible for you to achieve it. You will only demoralize yourself and erode your confidence if your goal is unachievable. Relevant, make sure your goal is actually relevant to the road you’re going to take in the future. If you are aiming to become a great singer then you should set a goal towards singing, writing songs and musical instrument. In this case “I want to increase my Math mark by 10% in the next 3 month” will not help too much. Time-Bound, A goal should have a deadline. Adding a deadline to your goal will increase your sense of urgency this will make you work harder and more efficient at achieving that goal. Also, this means that you know when you can celebrate success. Finally, Stick With It! That's the most important part of accomplishing your goals. When you have set a long term goal you might not notice any difference, building a daily plan and a reminder to keep yourself on track and ongoing is very important. Achieving a goal can be hard but no matter how hard it is and how much work it takes as long as it’s worth it then you shouldn't give up. Eventually, when you have reached your goal you will be so proud of yourself.
Martin G Goal setting is something that everyone must do in their life. If you don't set goals in your life, then it's relatively sure that you will be very disappointed with your results. A quote by Zig Ziglar says that "If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time." The quote is expressing about Aiming at nothing is establishing yourself up to achieve nothing. Setting up goals is very important in your life. Goals determine motivation and direction. For example, if you don’t have a goal in your mind, it will be challenging to stay on task and do all the homework at school, etc. So today we’re going to talk about how to set up a goal correctly and assist you to become better. There are 3 rules you must follow to set up a goal:
When setting up a goal, you will also need to arrange a period and take it to step by steps. Goals can divide into short term and long term goals. Short goals are the goals that you want to achieve in a short period like within 6 months or so. Long term goals are the goals that you want to achieve in a long period like 1 year and above. Once you set up a time limit, you have to take it steps by steps. Some people will stop working toward their goal in the middle because they think it’s too hard to do. However, that's all because they set their standard up too high. For example, I am a professional swimmer, and if I set my goal of winning 8 Olympic gold medals at the Olympic game in less than two years, there's no way I can get it. However, if I set my goal to make the World Junior Championship this year, it will be much easier but also hard at the same time. So take your goal seriously and work on it step by step. Lastly, when setting up a goal, you need to be specific about what you want. You need to understand what you need at first and then set a goal. For example, you can’t just say I am going to study hard and try to go to Harvard University. Okay, I know you want to go to Harvard University, and you say you’re going to study hard, but how are you going to study specifically to get into Harvard University? An example goal that I will have would be: I want to go to Harvard University. I am going to go to swimming college and find out about the head coach’s email and starting to communicate with him this week on the weekend. After the head coach has given me the standards of the University (for example SAT score - 1450, and GPA 3.5), I will study SAT practice questions one hour per day and try to get a score higher than 1450. I am bad at reading, so I will start to read 1 chapter a day. This would be a good example goal that I would have when breaking it down into detail pieces. So don’t just give a general goal, be specific about what you want. To conclude, goal setting is not a hard thing to do, but achieving it might be a hard thing to accomplish. Sometimes you might give up in the middle, but whenever you think you’re about to give up, think about why you want to achieve your goal, think about what you will get as a reward at the end after you accomplish it. Therefore, never give up until the very end, always believe you will always find your way.
Eric T Further reading: Links: https://prezi.com/2d-d5u7u4vtt/goal-setting/ If you have ever heard of Elon Musk, it’s possible you know him because he played a big part in starting the company, PayPal. He used all that money, even when everyone said he was going to fail to start a company, Space x. You may also know him for creating Tesla, an eco-friendly car company and naming that company after Nikola Tesla, instead of himself. These businesses failed so many times that after five years of failing he had almost no money left. “My proceeds from paypal were 180 million, i put 100 million into space x, 70 million into tesla and 10 million in solar city, i had to borrow money for rent” - Elon. Even though everyone was telling him for five years publicly on the news that he was wasting his money and anyone who buys his stalk is wasting money. He continued his dream. If you have ever heard of him you would probably know him for his crazy work ethic and determination. Now just how crazy? you might ask. Often he sleeps at his office and working much over 100 hours a week is typical. I started to wonder both what caused his work ethic and why he was so successful. Also how can his story help people like you and me. So first what caused his work ethic? When he was at school ( elementary and high school) he hated it. He was mostly seen as an average student. A former classmate said that he was a 'likable, quiet, unspectacular student’. Elon Musk said he would "rather play video games, write software and read books than try and get an A if there's no point in getting an A”. In college, he way outperformed everyone in his class, mostly because he knew the material better than anyone else often times before he even took the course. What I think this shows is that Elon loves learning and what most would call work, he loves doing. It was never about getting the grade, it was about learning and having fun while doing so. This explains his work ethic a little bit, he loves what he does. However, it does not completely explain why he works so much. Many people love what they do, but spending over one hundred hours a week on something just because you love it is rare. I think the reason for his productivity is number eight of Elon Musk Work Ethic: 10 Secrets for Insane Success, for this website. The reason is that he embraces stretch goals. Meaning that when something is important enough he does it even if the odds are not in his favour. He has shown this many times in the past. But what seems to be even more important than that, for him is having a dream with goals so unattainable that he has to work most hours of the day to achieve them or even come close at all. Now, why is he so successful? Now there are many factors to this but one of them is that he reads a lot, he is always learning. Of course his work ethic but also his goals, the ones that everyone doubted for five years before he made any progress and his persistence with those goals and that he risked millions of dollars to make those goals happen.
I think The most important factor of his success was his audacity to dream so big and to find steps to achieve those goals and go after them at the most intense rate possible is the reason for his successes today. Without his big dreams, risk, persistence, work ethic and accumulative knowledge. He would never have achieved what he has today. So what can you learn from Elon’s story? This is just one example of successes there are many more however what you can take away from Elon is: Dream, once you have that dream commit to it. Don’t be afraid to take risks or persist till you achieve that dream, repeat. Hayley C There is no denying that setting a goal is very important. We find that successful people are always those having and achieving their goals. They set goals, short-term or long-run, to help realize their visions. Why is goal-setting important? By setting goals you are taking control of the tempo of your life. It is having a map to guide you to where you want to head for. With a clear direction, and with certain plans, you will straightly get what you want. On the contrary, without a goal ,you will live a wandering life. You do not know where to go, what you want and why you are listless. Then your life becomes dull and meaningless just like the dead water in a muddy lake. All people should have their own goals. Whether this goal is a positive energy goal or a negative energy goal, but it is better to have a positive energy goal. If you can't complete a long goal you can try to complete a really short goal. When I first came to Canada, my English was really bad and bad . I set myself a goal at that time to remember 10 words a day. Although I didn't complete this small goal every day, but it was also much better than no goal. If there is no such as a goal, I may not remember any word. There are three kinds of goals: short-term medium term and long-term goals. Short- term goals are those that usually deal with current activities, which we can apply on a daily basis. Such goals can be achieved in a week or less, or two weeks, or possibly months. It should be remembered that just as a building is no stronger than its foundation, our long-term goals cannot amount to very much without the achievement of solid short-term goals. Upon completing our short-term goals, we should date the occasion and then add new short term goals that will build on those that have been completed. The medium-term goals build on the foundation of the short-term goals. They might deal with just one term of school or the entire school year, or they could even extend for several years Any time you move a step at a time, you should never allow yourself to become discouraged or overwhelmed. As you complete each step, you will enforce the belief in your ability to grow and succeed. And as your list of completion dates grow, your motivation and desire will increase. Long-term goals may be related to our dreams of the future. They might cover five years or more. Life is not a static thing. We should never allow a long-term goal to limit us or our course of action . From my point of view, goals are not difficult to set and realize. First, you should
make clear what you really want, which constitutes your goals .Then you make detailed plan and follow the through, as many winners do. http://www.keepinspiring.me/why-you-need-to-set-goals/ https://www.mindtools.com/page6.html Haobo L Goal setting is a great way to get stuff done. It allows you to set your own due date and when you achieve the goal it makes you feel good and accomplished. In order to set a goal there are a few guidelines to follow however it ends up be pretty freely done. I remember these guidelines as SMART goals. In SMART the S stands for specific, so make sure you completely understand what your end goal is. The M stands for measurable, which means you have exact timelines and amounts to achieve your goal. The A stands for achievable, so make sure that your goal is reasonable in that it can be achieved in the timeline you come up with, ex: saying that you can finish three projects in 2 hours is not achievable. The R stands for relevant, is the goal relevant to your end goal, so will your goal end up affecting your final target? And the T stands for time limited which means like i've said before you must have an end date in mind. Often when people get behind on schoolwork or paperwork for jobs, they get really stressed out and overwhelmed. If this happens to you then just come down and use the “SMART” strategy. Just focus on one task at a time and give yourself a manageable amount of time to do it. For more details on this strategy go here In order for this goal setting strategies to work you have to have the motivation to and want to do it. If you are doing this because you have to, it will not work. But if you actually give this a chance i promise that once you achieve your goal you will feel so good about yourself. And this can be used with more than just school but anything, sports, music, hobbies, etc… no matter what you are doing in your life you can always use smart goals to make it better. And keep in mind that smart goals can always change. This can be called a SMARTER goal which adds evaluate and re-do. So make sure you are always evaluating goals and making new ones that are better because like everyone says “you can always better it”
If you want to create a smart goal then go here. This is a very good template for making SMART goals, just enter your email address and your good! I use this at least twice a week to set my goals, it makes it a lot easier to make them because it reminds you of what to do. |
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